Witness Marks Report--Revised and Expanded

[Dwight Gruber]

When I posted the witness mark information I didn't expect the kind of controversy which it engendered. The original article has passed far upscreen, and much conflicting information and opinion has followed. In the service of clarity, I here excerpt from the text salient details which bear particularly on Luger barrel manufacture:

A Mauser factory worker participating in P-08 barrel manufacture described the process--steel barrel rod stock cut to length; bored through and reamed; outer surface shaped; front sight base milled; threads milled; barrel (in the white and unmarked) passed to next operation.

Original replacement barrels are reported with no witness marks.

19 of the 23 reported Krieghoff's (manufactured with the same tooling as Erfurts and Simsons) have no witness marks whatsoever.

Rework Lugers are reported, examined, pictured with no barrel witness mark. Mauser Interarms Lugers (manufactured with Swiss Bern tooling) are examined with no witness marks.

Lugers are examined and reported--and pictured--with perfect, single-strike, undisturbed witness marks.

German Army instructions explicitly provide that witness marks be struck on finished pistols immediately prior to power-proof and shooting-in.

First-person commentary provides at least one scenario where Luger barrels would have been replaced after power-proof firing, resulting ultimately in, among other things, mismatched witness marks.

No secondary sources--writers writing about Lugers--were used in this study. Published English translation of German Army instructions and regulations were referenced, these can be considered authoritative.

--Dwight